Hola and welcome to live coverage of stage 9 of the Vuelta a Espana - a 168km dash along the Costa Blanca from Torrevieja to Cumbre del Sol, which concludes with a double ascent of the Alto de Puig Llorenca.

It's Cattaneo and Serry who leads, with Bagot falling back. Fraile is riding back onto the wheel of Bagot. Those KOM points are up for grabs over the summit.

Fraile appears to have hit the wall and it's Serry who sets the pace. Both Hurel and Gougeard have been dropped.

Omar Fraile, the polka dot jersey, sets the tempo on this climb. It's very steep and straight, making it psychologically tough. The gap is down to just two minutes as a few of the escapees are blown of the back.

The leaders are onto the first ascent of the Puig Llorença (Cat.2, 3.3km at 8.9%) which peaks out at around 15%. The second ascent is longer because the route continues further up the hill. As such it has a Cat.1 status.

The gap is coming down pretty quickly now as Orica-GreenEdge come to the front alongside Movistar. Could Chaves get his third win of the race today? That would be sensational...

Now it's the Movistar team of Valverde and Tour runner-up Nairo Quintana who set the pace. The pack trails the 14 leaders by 3:10 now ahead of the first of two ascents of the Alto de Puig Llorenca climb.

Songezo Jim sets the pace on the front of the break, while the three Etixx riders - Maes, Serry and Bouet - are all firmly rooted to the back. MTN-Qhubeka's Jim then drops back and joins them for a few words. This is the 24-year-old South African's first Grand Tour.

The peloton passes through the coastal town of Calpe with its eye-catching rock formation the Penon de Ifach strutting out into the Mediterranean. The gap is 4:10 for the leaders. If this break goes the distance, Etixx hold the upper hand what with three riders present. Thomas is the dangerman, however. He's love to get some solo acclaim after all his selfless riding for Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins through the years.

Movistar and Tinkoff-Saxo have come to the front to help out Katusha. Now Sagan has gone home, Tinkoff's eggs will all be in Rafal Majka's basket hereon in. The young Pole has yet to lead a team in a Grand Tour and you get the sense that, with the big time trial in the final week, his best chances will be with stage wins in the high mountains.

Katusha drive the pace on an uncategorised mound ahead of the double ascent that will crown today's stage. Katusha upped the tempo when Valverde went down in that earlier crash, apparently. The gap is four minutes now for the escapees.

It's worth adding that in Sagan's absence, it's Alejandro Valverde who wears the green jersey today. Esteban Chaves would be in green - he leads on 70 points - but the Colombian is in the red jersey so it's Valverde who takes over. The Spaniard is nine points down, with Roche third on 48.

The gap is down to 4:20 for the 14-man break as Katusha continue to lead the chase.

Nico Roche has been very consistent in the Vuelta so far. In the grand scheme of things he's in Spain to help Chris Froome win the entire race, but he will have his chances to shine along the way. He told lavuelta.com this about today's stage: "Another hard and tricky finish. But yes at 4km long, it's a finale that suits me once again. We'll see how it goes. I'm third overall this morning so it would be a lie to say that I'm not thinking about the GC at all. You have to take it each step at a time but I still feel very good."

A reminder of the 14 leaders, who have been out since the third kilometre (with the exception of Gougeard, who bridged across much later): Nikolas Maes, Pieter Serry and Maxime Bouet (Etixx-QuickStep), Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), Lorrenzo Manzin (FDJ), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida), Yohan Bagot (Cofidis), Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo), Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), Tony Hurel (Europcar), Danny Van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo), Songezo Jim (MTN-Qhubeka) and Alexis Gougeard (Ag2R-La Mondiale).

Nacer Bouhanni's exit yesterday was the latest set back in a torrid season for the Frenchman. Today his Cofidis sporting director Didier Rous said: "For Nacer, it's piling up. As he puts it, he crashed more in the last three months than in the rest of his career. But he must go back to positive thinking and focus on the world championships in which he hopes to be selected but it's his pain to the elbow which will decide whether he can come back quickly or not."

The leaders are approaching the feed zone with a gap of 5:15 over the Katusha-led peloton.

Some big names in this break, including Welshman Geraint Thomas let off the leash by Team Sky. We also have Omar Fraile (Caja Rural), the current polka dot jersey, who is tied at the top of the KOM competition with stage seven winner Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo). They both have 13 points.

Katusha lead the chase on the front of the peloton, which rides 5:30 down on the break. The Russian team has yet to win a stage and will have high hopes for either Joaquim Rodriguez or Dani Moreno today.

IAM Cycling have lost their third rider of the race: Thomas Degand has called it a day. They lost both Matteo Pelucchi and David Tanner on stage 2 a week ago. The fall-out continues from that earlier crash, with Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R - La Mondiale), Marcel Aregger (IAM Cycling) and Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) all visiting the medical car.

The best-placed rider in this group is Maxime Bouet of Etixx-QuickStep, who is 10:44 down on race leader Estevan Chaves. The Colombian from Orica-GreenEdge still holds a 10-second lead over Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) and 36 seconds over third-place Nico Roche of Team Sky.

Valverde has been to see the medical car but according to his Movistar team, he is ok following that crash. Team-mate Gio Visconti - fourth yesterday - is said to have a problem with his ankle.